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Mar 25th, 2025
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Joined: Apr 2022
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Hello! I am a Latin Catholic with interest in the Eastern Catholic churches. I am most familiar with the Byzantine rite, as there is a Melkite church near where I live. I recently attended a Syriac Catholic church in Florida, as I had never been to one, and I have some questions. Having been to a Syriac Orthodox liturgy and a Maronite liturgy (as Maronites also use the Syriac rite), I'm a bit confused why it didn't really look like either one. This is not a judgement on Syriac Catholics or how they worship, it just didn't seem that different than how we Latins worship. That said, I am aware of historical realities of their homeland, and I would imagine that that played into it, somewhat. Anyway, if there are any Syriac Catholics here, I would love to learn more about your Church. God bless y'all!
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Joined: Jan 2022
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Latinization is an ongoing problem in many of the Eastern Catholic Churches. My impression from a Syriac Catholic is that it's particularly dire in their neck of the woods (esp. Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara). I am indirectly aware of a family that changed ascription from the Syro-Malankara to the Latin Church and exclusively attend TLM because of the Latinized modernization the liturgy had been pushed toward. I don't know which churches are least affected by this and I think it can look very different in the United States vs. the old world home of your patriarchate. Melkite Divine Liturgy can vary from parish to parish in the US but they're pretty enmeshed with their Antiochian brothers back in the Middle East. My Melkite parish's liturgy has some slavic use touches because it was a Ruthenian mission 2-3 years ago. I'd rather we just follow the books from the eparchy but I'm not going to battle anyone over it right now.
Which Melkite parish are you near if you don't mind my asking? What's it like? We're thinking about moving to Florida from Texas and I was eyeing Delray Beach.
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Not sure if you meant the "Syriac Catholic Church" based in Lebanon or the Syriac rite Eastern Catholic churches in general ?
the "Syriac Catholic Church" in the US has a jurisdiction/diocese called the "Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark". I don't know a whole lot about them. But they are a small church - with a total membership of like 150K people.
the other Syriac rite churches include:
Syro-Malabar Church - India (East Syriac Rite)
Chaldean Catholic Church - Iraq (East Syriac Rite)
Maronite Catholic Church - Lebanon (West Syriac Rite)
Syro-Malankara Church - India (West Syriac Rite)
most of them are pretty Latinized. Except for the Syro-Malankara Church, which is pretty traditional in terms of the Liturgy. That's mainly because they reunited with Rome in 1930- when a Malankara Orthodox bishop decided to join in communion with the Holy See. So they've been in full communion for less than a 100 years, and so are more "oriental" and traditional to their liturgical rite, the West Syriac rite. There's some 400K people in the Syro-Malankara Church.
the 2 largest in terms of membership in the Syriac rite churches are the Syro-Malabar Church and the Maronite Church- having some 3-4 million people. And both are heavily Latinized. the common laity in both of these churches have a very Latin centric spirituality/prayer life
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Joined: Jul 2022
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The modern problem from what I have read from commentaries is not necessarily latinization but modernization. The irony is that as some modernist eastern catholic leaders delatinize, they end up making their liturgies more similar to the modernized latin liturgy.
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Joined: Apr 2022
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The modern problem from what I have read from commentaries is not necessarily latinization but modernization. The irony is that as some modernist eastern catholic leaders delatinize, they end up making their liturgies more similar to the modernized latin liturgy. That's a very uncharitable way to look at the west.
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Joined: Apr 2022
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Not sure if you meant the "Syriac Catholic Church" based in Lebanon or the Syriac rite Eastern Catholic churches in general ?
the "Syriac Catholic Church" in the US has a jurisdiction/diocese called the "Syriac Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Deliverance of Newark". I don't know a whole lot about them. But they are a small church - with a total membership of like 150K people.
Yep, that's the one I am referring to
[quote=kynokefalos]Latinization is an ongoing problem in many of the Eastern Catholic Churches. My impression from a Syriac Catholic is that it's particularly dire in their neck of the woods (esp. Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara). I am indirectly aware of a family that changed ascription from the Syro-Malankara to the Latin Church and exclusively attend TLM because of the Latinized modernization the liturgy had been pushed toward. I don't know which churches are least affected by this and I think it can look very different in the United States vs. the old world home of your patriarchate. Melkite Divine Liturgy can vary from parish to parish in the US but they're pretty enmeshed with their Antiochian brothers back in the Middle East. My Melkite parish's liturgy has some slavic use touches because it was a Ruthenian mission 2-3 years ago. I'd rather we just follow the books from the eparchy but I'm not going to battle anyone over it right now.
Which Melkite parish are you near if you don't mind my asking? What's it like? We're thinking about moving to Florida from Texas and I was eyeing Delray Beach. I live in South Carolina, I was visiting Florida. I live near St. Ignatios of Antioch in Augusta, Georgia, though. I know there as been talk (from Bishop Nicholas, even!) about building a new church in Jacksonville. I don't know a lot about Delray Beach .
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